Modern casinos rely heavily on slot machine revenue. In fact, increasingly slot machines generate a high percentage of a casino's bottom line. The traditional slot machine has three mechanical reels, including gaming indicia thereon, driven by a stepper motor. A random number generator built into, or in communication with, a microprocessor causes the reels and corresponding indicia to stop at random locations resulting in an award if the location of the gaming indicia correspond to predefined locations established by pay lines.
With the increased importance of slot machine revenues, casinos have a constant desire for new games capable of attracting players. To that end, video slot machines, multiple pay line machines and themed machines have been introduced. Moreover, the introduction of slot machines having secondary or bonus games have been very successful in practice. Traditional secondary games only become operable upon a predefined outcome of the primary game. For example, a gaming machine based on Wheel of Fortune® allows the player to “spin the wheel” if the outcome of the primary game so dictates. In practice, The Wheel of Fortune® game requires the third reel of the primary game to stop such that a predesignated gaming indicia is intersected by the pay line. Once the gaming indicia stops at the predefined location, the player presses a spin button and the wheel, placed above the primary game, spins until it slows and lands on a space indicating the number of bonus coins won by the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,932 (the '932 patent) to Adams discloses and claims “A Method of Playing Game and Gaming Device With At Least One Additional Payout Indicator.” The Wheel of Fortune® slot machine practices the claims of the '932 patent and related patents. Other secondary pay out devices, including mechanical pinball drops and video screens, are contemplated by the '932 patent and its family.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,603 (the '603 patent) to Seelig et al., describes a slot machine and racing game. Each time a predefined combination of gaming indicia stop at predefined locations on the primary game screen, a signal is generated which advances a racing element (e.g. car or horse) depicted on a racing display corresponding to the specific machine. The principal object of the '603 patent is to attempt to have the player's racing element reach the finish line before a pre-set timer expires. Once the timer expires, the machine, by means of a sensor, determines the final position of the racing element and pays an award according to the final position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,544 (the '544 patent) to Seelig et al., describes a combined slot machine and racing game. The '544 patent, in a similar fashion to the '603 patent, discloses a bank of slot machines in communication with one racing display including a plurality of racing elements whereby each racing element races it own clock. As with the '603 patent, once the timer expires, the machine, by means of a sensor, determines the final position of the racing element and pays an award according to the final position. The timing element is designed to encourage players to play at a frenetic pace.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,885 (the '885 patent) to Lermusiaux describes an “Electronic Football Wagering Game” that may be implemented as a bonus game. When implemented as a bonus game, the '885 patent discloses that upon a predefined winning outcome for the base game (e.g. slot machine) a random football play is generated by the bonus game. Based on the play, a bonus is awarded to a player. The '885 patent requires a predefined primary game winning outcome to trigger the secondary game. There is no suggestion in the '885 patent that the bonus game operate when the primary game does not achieve a predefined winning outcome.
While the aforementioned patents cover novel concepts, none disclose a secondary game that is operable in response to predefined primary game non-winning events and specific predefined primary game winning events. Moreover, the prior art does not suggest or claim a secondary game that advances a player towards a bonus award based on continuous play of the primary game. For example, most secondary games award a bonus instantly upon a single play independent of the next play. The present invention addresses the deficiencies of the prior art by providing a secondary game whereby said secondary game operates in response to both predefined non-winning events and predefined winning events of the primary game, and maintains the previous secondary game results for summation with future secondary results.